Literary studies: fiction Books

Book SynopsisThis book explores how J.R.R Tolkien's work came to be so diversely received.

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Book SynopsisThis study shows how Evelyn Waugh transformed his own experiences into painfully comic, brilliantly constructed novels.Trade ReviewReviews 'There is no doubt that Pasternak Slater’s analysis of [Waugh's] oeuvre is a superb piece of work. It should become a classic, enduring study.' William Boyd, The Guardian'Ann Pasternak Slater usefully reverses the main tendency in decades of critical reaction to Evelyn Waugh. Most studies focus on his early works; Pasternak Slater devotes more space to his later novels and demonstrates their increasing complexity in relation to Waugh’s life, historical events, and aesthetic considerations. Comprehensive and well written, this volume is a very welcome addition to the handful of good books about Waugh. Highly recommended.' John Howard Wilson, editor of Evelyn Waugh StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsBiographical OutlineAbbreviationsIntroduction1 Decline and Fall2 Vile Bodies3 Black Mischief4 A Handful of Dust5 Scoop6 Work Suspended7 Put Out More Flags8 Brideshead Revisited9 The Loved One10 Helena11 Men at Arms12 Officers and Gentlemen13 The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold14 Towards Unconditional Surrender15 Unconditional Surrender and Sword of HonourAppendix AAppendix BSelect Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis study examines Thackeray's writings, including novels, shorter fiction, journalism and criticism.

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Book SynopsisLorna Sage’s authoritative study explores the roots of Carter’s originality, covering all of her novels as well as some short stories and non-fiction.

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Book SynopsisA revealing account of a naval officer's young wife, her life during the Napoleonic Wars, and her influence on Jane Austen's fiction.Trade Review"Jane Austen's Transatlantic Sister draws an exciting new portrait of a relatively unsung heroine. Kindred successfully weaves together factual material from a range of sources, revealing the rigours and rewards of Charles Austen's experiences as a naval officer combined with his wife's fears for his survival, pride in his achievements, and constant anxiety regarding finance and family status. This is a compelling approach to Fanny Austen's life and the first extensive study to focus on a man's naval career from a woman's perspective." Hazel Jones, author of Jane Austen and Marriage

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Book SynopsisA critical study of L.M. Montgomery's relationship to the material world and the revealing interconnections between nature and culture.Trade Review"An emphasis on humanity's interrelatedness with nature extends the significance of L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) past Montgomery studies and Canadian literary and cultural studies to engage with the larger issues of how humans' interactions with nature shape our daily lives and the future of the planet." Mary Jeanette Moran, Illinois State University"This collection is significant for its ability to offer unexpected, highly convincing engagements with L. M. Montgomery's work and disciplines far beyond the scope of traditional literary studies. It provides new perspectives on Montgomery's oeuvre, while also extending the definition of environmental study and eco-critical analysis in this field." Sarah Galletly, James Cook University"The linked themes of understanding and empathy toward the natural world supply a bridge between the literary and the ecological, between the writer and the places she knew. Matter of Nature(s) is a wonderful opportunity to place one of Canada’s most prolific and well-known authors in a wider environmental history." American Review of Canadian Studies

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Book SynopsisRevealing the truth behind the legend of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, Nathaniel Branden tells the story of his relationship with the literary genius, 25 years his senior. It lasted 18 years and went from student/teacher, to friends, to colleagues, to lovers, and to bitter adversaries.Trade Review"Dr. Branden's account of his complex relationship with theliterary great . . . allows us a fascinating glimpse into thepassions of their lives--intellectual and personal. . . . [It is]not only a memoir of a mythic woman . . . but a chronicle of astirring intellectual commitment to a political morality thatindivudally could only fail." (NAPRA ReView) "What a story! It's heroic, romantic, deadly, horrifying,tender-and I couldn't put it down." (George Leonard, author of TheTransformation and Education and Education and Ecstasy) "Relentlessly revealing. . . the myth of Ayn Rand gives way to afull-sized portrait in contrasting colors, appealing and appalling,potent and paradoxical. . . . it takes a special kind of nerve towrite such a book." (Norman Cousins, author of Head First and TheHealing Heart) "Non-stop theater. All the ingredients are there: conflict,colorful characters, suspense, and a Greek inevitability of tragedyborn of hubris. There's a nexus of sex nearly dizzying in itspermutations." (Dale Wasserman, playwright and screenwriter, Man ofLa Mancha and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) "Branden plots his relationship with Rand from a psychologicalvantage point, with devastatingly articulate results. . . . Afascinating portrait of Rand and her disciples." (KirkusReviews) "Do you know my greatest reward for 'The Fountainhead?' You." (AynRand to Nathaniel Branden)Table of ContentsAuthor's Note Dedication Introduction Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Part Two Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 13 Part Three Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Epilogue The Author Index

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Book SynopsisHerman Melville was already considered to be a successful author when he wrote ""Moby-Dick"" in just under two years. This book offers commentary on the canvas of symbols, themes, and subjects presented in this novel, as well as an introduction, a chronology, a bibliography, and an index.

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Book SynopsisHarold Bloom is America's most esteemed literary critic and one of the greatest critical minds of our time. This work contains the best of Bloom's writing on the greatest novels and novelists of our time - from Daniel Defoe to Philip Roth, from Charles Dickens to Amy Tan. It also features his overview of the genre and thoughts on its development.

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Book SynopsisAdopting a boldly innovative approach to women’s autobiographical writing, Françoise Lionnet here examines the rhetoric of self-portraiture in works by authors who are bilingual or multilingual or of mixed races or cultures. Autobiographical Voices offers incisive readings of texts by Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Marie Cardinal, Maryse...Trade ReviewAutobiographical Voices is an innovative, highly suggestive study of autobiographical writing that cuts across traditional boundaries of canon and culture, gender, genre, and academic discipline. Lionnet’s purpose is to break down accepted polarities, opening up the field of literary studies to a cultural diversity that she herself has incorporated in both her subject matter and methodology. Although a scholarly work, this book also expresses a forthright message about freedom of expression, especially that of groups silenced by political and cultural oppression. -- Mary Rice-Defosse * Modern Language Studies *

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Book Synopsis"Chekhov's keen powers of observation have been remarked by both memoirists who knew him well and scholars who approach him only through the written record and across the distance of many decades. To apprehend Chekhov means seeing how Chekhov sees...Trade Review"Chekhov was a master at deflecting critical attention away from his own personality, both in his writing and in his private life. But he reckoned without the supreme forensic skills of a scholar such as Michael C. Finke, who seeks to probe beneath the layers of dusty cliché that have accumulated during the past century. In his incisive new book, Finke lays Chekhov bare by marshaling an impressive arsenal of analytical tools and by playing the writer at his own game, using X-ray vision to penetrate the unexpected points of contact between the life and the creative work. It is exhilarating to see Chekhov through Finke's eyes." -- Rosamund Bartlett, author of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life"In Seeing Chekhov, Michael C. Finke succeeds in integrating Chekhov's life and work, his art and his science, his role as a physician and as a patient, as a dramatist and a prose writer, the personal and the professional, the pseudonyms that efface his identity and those that all but proclaim it. Chekhov's preference for not being seen, as it turns out, demands that we examine his strategies of hiding rather than obligingly averting our eyes. The payoff in terms of insight into Chekhov's poetics is enormous." -- Cathy Popkin, Lionel Trilling Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University"Michael C. Finke has written an outstanding and innovative piece of work: a psychobiography of Chekhov the man and writer based on deep and sensitive readings of the Russian author's prose, plays, and letters, and of extensive biographical writings and materials. Thoroughly informed, Finke does not merely talk 'about' Chekhov or rehash general ideas, but opens up an unknown Chekhov, or, in any case, aspects of the man that the writer, Chekhov, rigorously guarded, and that have hitherto been seen or described mostly from the outside, and apart from Chekhov's writing and poetics. 'Seeing, being seen, hiding and showing,' in Finke's words, are signal concepts for exploring Chekhov the man and the writer. Here is a book that will interest both a wide range of specialists and the interested general reader." -- Robert Louis Jackson, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University

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Book SynopsisAll of us take our moral bearings from a conception of the good, or a range of goods, that we consider most important. We are in this sense selves in moral space. Building on the work of the philosopher Charles Taylor, among others, David Parker...Trade ReviewDavid Parker demonstrates the fruitfulness of an ongoing conversation between literature and philosophy. Moral philosophers are paying increasing attention to literary texts for insights that some argue are not to be gained elsewhere. The Self in Moral Space shows that literary theorists may learn equally from philosophers. -- Samantha Vice * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisGod only knows how many diverse, captivating impressions and thoughts evoked by these impressions... pass in a single day. If it were only possible to render them in such a way that I could easily read myself and that others could read me as I do... Such was the desire of the young Tolstoy. Although he knew that this narrative utopiaturning the totality of his life into a bookwould remain unfulfilled, Tolstoy would spend the rest of his life attempting to achieve it. Who, What Am I? is an account of Tolstoy''s lifelong attempt to find adequate ways to represent the self, to probe its limits and, ultimately, to arrive at an identity not based on the bodily self and its accumulated life experience.This book guides readers through the voluminous, highly personal nonfiction writings that Tolstoy produced from the 1850s until his death in 1910. The variety of these texts is enormous, including diaries, religious tracts, personal confessions, letters, autobiographical fragments, anTrade ReviewOffers a rare exploration into the internal world of Tolstoy by examining his nonfictional, first-person writings, including diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, and essays.... Paperno makes an invaluable contribution to Tolstoy scholarship. -- R. A. Erb * CHOICE *Paperno reads all his [Tolstoy’s] writings in relation to the central project of his life: the transformation of his life into a book that would teach others how to live.... ‘Who, What Am I?’ is an important book that will become a standard source for students, general readers and scholars alike. * SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW *Paperno deftly shows how Tolstoi's attempt to write an autobiography failed, but his perceived failure at capturing the moral, philosophical, and technical issues accurately becomes a testament to his literary honesty (102). "Who, What Am I?" is highly important for any Tolstoi researcher, as it brings together the whole of his writings dealing with the exploration of the self. -- Radha Balasubramanian * Slavic Review *This is a relatively short book, yet it is rich in content, taking on some of the most important and challenging problems Tolstoy faced as a writer and thinker. [Irina Paperno] draws on a full range of Tolstoy's nonfiction writings from the 1850s until his death in 1910: diaries, letters, reminiscences, autobiographical and confessional statements, essays, and religious tracts. In addition, her book is informed by vast reading in other sources, primary and secondary. -- Randall A. Poole * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1. "So That I Could Easily Read Myself": Tolstoy's Early DiariesTolstoy Starts a Diary—The Moral Vision of Self and the Temporal Order of Narrative—What Is Time? Cultural Precedents—“A History of Yesterday”— Time and Narrative—The Dream: The Hidden Recesses of Time—What Am I? The Young Tolstoy Defines Himself—What Am I? Cultural PrecedentsInterlude: Between Personal Documents and FictionFrom Diaries to Childhood: Tolstoy Becomes a Writer (1852)—“I Think I Will Never Write Again”: Tolstoy Attempts to Renounce Literature (1859)—“I . . . Don’t Even Think about the Accursed Lit-t-terature and Lit-t-terateurs”: Tolstoy Renounces Literature Again (1870); and Again (1874–75)Chapter 2. “To Tell One’s Faith Is Impossible. . . . How to Tell That Which I Live By. I’ll Tell You, All the Same. . . .” Tolstoy in His Correspondence“What Is My Life? What Am I?”: Tolstoy’s Philosophical Dialogue with Nikolai Strakhov—“I Wish that You, Instead of Reading Anna Kar [ enina ], Would Finish It. . . .”—“In the Form of Catechism,” “In the Form of a Dialogue”—To Tell One’s Life—Rousseau and His Profession/Confession—The Parting of Ways: Tolstoy Writes His Confession, and Strakhov Continues to Confess in His Letters to TolstoyChapter 3. Tolstoy’s Confession : What Am I?Tolstoy Publishes his Confession—The Conversion Narrative: Excursus on the Genre—Tolstoy’s Confession : Step by Step—Tolstoy’s Confession Related to Rousseau’s and Augustine’s—After Confession: “Presenting Christ’s Teaching as Something New after 1,800 Years of Christianity”—Coda: Tolstoy’s InfluenceChapter 4. “To Write My Life ”: Tolstoy Tries, and Fails, to Produce a Memoir or AutobiographyThe Author Biography—“My Life”: “On the Basis of My Own Memories”—“Reminiscences”: “More Useful Than All That Artistic Prattle with Which the Twelve Volumes of My Works Are Filled”—“Reminiscences”: “I Cannot Provide a Coherent Description of Events and States of Mind”—“The Green Stick”: “Où Suis-Je? Pourquoi Suis-Je? Que Suis-Je?”—Tolstoy and the Autobiographical TraditionChapter 5. “What Should We Do Then?”: Tolstoy on Self and Other“Why Have You, a Man from a Different World, Stopped near Us? Who Are You?”—Master and Slave: Tolstoy Rewrites Hegel—Tolstoy and the Washerwoman—The Order of Things: The Church, the State, the Arts and Sciences—“Master and Man”—Coda: Nonparticipation in EvilChapter 6. “I Felt a Completely New Liberation from Personality”: Tolstoy’s Late DiariesTolstoy Resumes his Diary—The Temporal Order of Narrative: The Last Day—“On Life and Death ”—The Diary as a Spiritual Exercise—“I, the Body, Is Such a Disgusting Chamber Pot”—“I Am Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself Being Conscious of Myself. . . .”—“I Have Lost the Memory of Everything, Almost Everything. . . . How Can One Not Rejoice at the Loss of Memory?”—Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening—Tolstoy’s Dreams—Dreams: The World beyond Time and Representation—The Book of life: “It Is Written on Time”—The Circle of Reading: “To Replace the Consciousness of Leo Tolstoy with the Consciousness of All Humankind”—“The Death of Socrates”—Tolstoy’s DeathAppendix: Russian QuotationsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisDaniel Wickberg traces the cultural history of the concept from its British origins as a way to explore new conceptions of the self and social order in modern America.Trade ReviewUsing a vast range of materials (jokes, jests, and gags) and writers of every ilk (Carlyle, Chaplin, Freud, Twain), Wickberg charts the development of the modern sense of humor. The book suggests a great deal about American society and its values, and leads readers to recognize the socially constructed nature of reality. Because of its intriguing topic and engaging writing, this book will interest a broad variety of readers—from undergraduates through faculty—in many disciplines. Highly recommended. * Choice *Wickberg adds a new dimension to our knowledge of contemporary cultural sensibility. He also does what surely all good cultural historians do; he redraws the boundaries of what lies within history, and makes us look again at social habits and assumptions that we had perhaps taken for granted. * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisIn the first book centering on the collaborative relationship between Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, Lillian Nayder places their coauthored works in the context of the Victorian publishing industry and shows how their fiction and drama represent and reconfigure their sometimes strained relationship. She challenges the widely accepted image of Dickens as a mentor of younger writers such as Collins, points to the ways in which Dickens controlled and profited from his literary satellites, and charts Collins''s development as an increasingly significant and independent author. The pair''s collaborations for Household Words and All the Year Round explicitly addressed Victorian labor disputes and political unrest, and Nayder reads the stories in terms of the social and imperial conflicts that both provided their themes and enabled Dickens and Collins to mediate their own personal and professional differences. Nayder''s discussion of the collaboration and its prinTrade ReviewUnequal Partners is a well-written, well-researched, sharply focused book that excels in training our attention on the asymmetries of Dickens's and Collins's professional relationship. In the early 1850's, Dickens was clearly the master, Collins the apprentice, but this model gradually lost applicability as Collins matured as a writer. * Novel *For more than a century, Wilkie Collins's reputation has been overshadowed by that of Charles Dickens, a situation that Nayder goes far toward rectifying.... Nayder's critiques of Collins's The Moonstone faced off by Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood are highlights in this study. * Choice *In Unequal Partners, Nayder graphs a progressively difficult partnership from Collins's initial hero-worship of The Inimitable,... through a more equitable division of labors which still excluded control of the total artistic vision of a work, to Collins's parting company with Dickens in 1862 after eight Christmas Stories.... When Collins returned, he was an established author prepared to challenge the authority of the journal's 'Conductor.' Finally, Nayder provides a refreshing and challenging reading of The Moonstone and The Mystery of Edwin Drood as diametrically opposed in matters of gender and race. * Victorian Web *Nayder's juxtaposition of fact and fiction, and her painstaking scholarship, offer fresh insights which renew interest in works which seemingly contain a key to the productive, yet often strained, alliance, between these two nineteenth-century authors. * Yearbook of English Studies *The Dickens/Collins collaborations and competitions were productive in the authors' lifetimes and subsequently. Lillian Nayder's thorough, clear, and partisan account of Collins's role will assuredly be answered by Dickensians. But they had better consider all her evidence, including the ambiguous, changing material conditions of writing that affected both authors' careers. For she has constructed an exemplary case for the subordinate who rose from dependent to independent Victorian author. * Victorian Periodical Review *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsThe Collaborations of Dickens and CollinsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Professional Writers and Hired Hands: Household Words and the Victorian Publishing Business2. Collins Joins Dickens's Management Team: "The Wreck of the Golden Mary"3. The Cannibal, the Nurse, and the Cook: Variants of The Frozen Deep4. Class Consciousness and the Indian Mutiny: The Collaborative Fiction of 18575. "No Thoroughfare": The Problem of Illegitimacy6. Crimes of the Empire, Contagion of the East: The Moonstone and The Mystery of Edwin DroodConclusion—"This Unclean Spirit of Imitation": Dickens and the "Problem" of Collins's InfluenceWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisIn 1812, Napoleon launched his fateful invasion of Russia. Five decades later, Leo Tolstoy published War and Peace, a fictional representation of the era that is one of the most celebrated novels in world literature. The novel contains a coherent (though much disputed) philosophy of history and portrays the history and military strategy of its time in a manner that offers lessons for the soldiers of today. To mark the two hundredth anniversary of the French invasion of Russia and acknowledge the importance of Tolstoy''s novel for our historical memory of its central events, Rick McPeak and Donna Tussing Orwin have assembled a distinguished group of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgroundsliterary criticism, history, social science, and philosophyto provide fresh readings of the novel.The essays in Tolstoy On War focus primarily on the novel's depictions of war and history, and the range of responses suggests that these remain inexhaustible topics of debateTrade ReviewTolstoy on War offers readers the results of an international conference held in April 2010 at the United States Military Academy at West Point.. The audience consisted primarily of cadets who had studied the novel and who had already 'wrestled with [Tolstoi's] take on their deadly, idealistic profession' (2)..In all, the editors have done an excellent job, providing introductory and concluding comments that frame the dozen essays, while contributing their own original research. -- Kathleen Parthé * Slavic Review *McPeak and Orwin bring together twelve essays on Tolstoy's War and Peace to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the Battle of Borodino. Each chapter in some way touches on at least one the novel's most prevalent contradictions (e.g., war and peace; freedom and determinism; fiction and nonfiction), spanning the disciplines of literary criticism, history, and philosophy.... The volume has thematic consistency and a wide disciplinary appeal, bringing history and literary criticism together in a study of a classic of world literature. * Choice *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Donna Tussing OrwinChapter 1. Tolstoy on War, Russia, and Empire by Dominic LievenChapter 2. The Use of Historical Sources in War and Peace by Dan UngurianuChapter 3. Moscow in 1812: Myths and Realities by Alexander M. MartinChapter 4. The French at War: Representations of the Enemy in "War and Peace" by Alan ForrestChapter 5. Symposium of Quotations: Wit and Other Short Genres in "War and Peace" by Gary Saul MorsonChapter 6. The Great Man in "War and Peace" by Jeff LoveChapter 7. "War and Peace" from the Military Point of View by Donna Tussing OrwinChapter 8. Tolstoy and Clausewitz: The Duel as a Microcosm of War by Rick McPeakChapter 9 The Awful Poetry of War: Tolstoy's Borodino by Donna Tussing OrwinChapter 10. Tolstoy and Clausewitz: The Dialectics of War by Andreas Herberg-RotheChapter 11. The Disobediences of War and Peace by Elizabeth D. SametChapter 12. Tolstoy the International Relations Theorist by David A. WelchWar and Peace at West Point by Rick McPeak Notes Works Cited List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisBodenheimer defines the personal paradoxes that helped to shape Eliot's fictional characters and narrative style.Trade ReviewA richly compelling portrait of nineteenth-century British writer George Eliot.... Rather than arranging her material in standard chronological fashion, Bodenheimer has elected to present her analysis via a series of critical issues that affected both the social and literary styles of George Eliot throughout the course of her life. A fascinating hybrid of literary criticism and biography. * Booklist *Alert to the carefully deployed, multiple masks that Mary Ann Evans chose to wear, but also capable of writing with genuine feeling of Eliot's actual and fictional labors of choice, Bodenheimer has managed to write that seemingly impossible thing, postmodern biography that a humanist can admire. * Boston Book Review *An attentive reader of this book will never read George Eliot in the same way again. * George Eliot—George Henry Lewes Studies *Here we have the first full-scale study of George Eliot's correspondence.... Both the fictive nature of the letters and the autobiographical reality of fiction are well discussed in this very welcome book. * Choice *The Real Life of Mary Ann Evans is a critical book in which Eliot's letters and novels become one unit.... Bodenheimer talks about very unusual topics. * Lingua Franca *

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Book SynopsisSituated at the intersection of the colonial and the postcolonial, the modern and the postmodern, the novelists Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, and Nadine Gordimer all bear witness to this century''s global transformations. From the Margins of Empire looks at how the question of national identity is constructed in their writings. These authorswhite women who were born or grew up in British colonies or former coloniesreflect the subject of national identity in vastly different ways in both their lives and their work. Stead, who resided outside of her native Australia, has an unsettled identity. Lessing, who grew up in southern Rhodesia and migrated to England, is or has become English. Gordimer, who was born in South Africa and remains there, considers herself South African. Louise Yelin shows how the three writers'' different national identities are inscribed in their fiction. The invented, hybrid character of nationality is, she maintains, a constant throughout. LocatTrade ReviewA complex account of the relationship between issues of gender, national identity, and political affiliation. -- Stephen Cowden * Yearbook of English Studies *From the Margins of Empire is a book that should be read. Yelin maintains a difficult balance between criticism and praise for these three authors who are so interesting, and yet so problematic, in ways that must not be ignored. -- Cassandra Heliczer * American Book Review *The paradox of women without economic or political clout becoming symbols of a powerful system is familiar to feminists. But in bringing together Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, and Nadine Gordimer in an important new Study, Louise Yelin helps us imagine how the colonies looked to bright young women of European descent. -- Margaret Scanlan * Modern Fiction Studies *Yelin's study presents the novels provocatively, insightfully, and with a perfectly balanced appreciation of text and context.... Her uncovering.... testifies to the imaginative power of writers with a will to write a different story. -- Betsy Draine * Contemporary Literature *Yelin's superbly clear organization of this material is crucial to the book's success; while each chapter's detailed readings of novels... are all capable of standing alone, they also develop thematically and chronologically.... What further unites Yelin's discussion is her highly intelligent analysis of gender and genre in affirming a national identity or writing the nation. -- Simon Lewis * Research in African Literatures *

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Book SynopsisWhether revered for his masculinity, condemned as an icon of machismo, or perceived as possessing complex androgynous characteristics, Ernest Hemingway is acknowledged to be one of the most important twentieth-century American novelists. For Debra A...Trade ReviewHemingway studies has long needed a book like Reading Desire. -- Carl P. Eby * American Literature *

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Book SynopsisBefore the Second World War and long before the second wave of feminism, Virginia Woolf argued that women's experience, particularly in the women's movement, could be the basis for transformative social change. Grounding Virginia Woolf's feminist...Trade ReviewBlack... provides an excellent account of the textual evolution and development of Woolf's feminism.... Black effectively combats the image of Woolf as an aloof artist by enriching our understanding of the feminist contexts in which she worked. * College Literature *In this convincing new study, Black (political science and women's studies, York Univ., Toronto) demonstrates that Woolf's book-length essay Three Guineas is the clearest, most explicit statement of her feminism—a philosophy Woolf referred to as the 'life of natural happiness.' Black provides a meticulously researched examination of 'Three Guineas,' contending that it is central to Woolf's large body of work. In addition, she carefully considers different versions of the text, along with Woolf's other works; her contacts with the various women's organizations promoting the suffrage movement; and her beliefs about how the world can be transformed into a peaceful society.... Highly recommended for academic libraries. * Library Journal *Perhaps none of Virginia Woolf's works has been so little loved and ill-understood as Three Guineas.... But now, thanks to Virginia Woolf as Feminist, Naomi Black's learned, tireless argument in favor of this deliberately obdurate work, readers may come to appreciate this most uncompromising of Woolf's feminist pronouncements. Black's major and sustained claim is that Three Guineas is an intrinsically feminist work whose anti-war attitudes cannot be disassociated from Woolf's assault on masculinist privilege and domination.... These details, coupled with accurate paraphrase and citation of Woolf's arguments, give Black's study its quiet and insistent authority. Virginia Woolf as Feminist... has some new-fashioned, and urgent, literary and historical work to perform, as Black makes clear in the fervid argument she makes for Three Guineas continuing relevance for feminism in the third millennium. She admits Woolf's relative neglect of sexuality and class in her feminist writings, issues that trouble our own time, but in return asks us to consider how much Woolf has to say about women's health issues and the racial politics that also preoccupy us. In closing, she refers to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya to impress upon us how the feminist objectives underwritten by Woolf's three guineas—'democratization, education, and public professional activity'—still represent a program for political transformation. * English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920 *This book feels remarkably short at 200 pages, and at the end of it I feel—and this is not a criticism—that there is much more to be said about Woolf's feminism: 'We will never, in any simple sense, fully understand either Three Guineas or the feminism it represents'. This is one of those few books that I wish I had been (cap)able to write. The reason I have quoted from it so extensively is that Naomi Black expresses so clearly the arguments she is making. * Virginia Woolf Bulletin *

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the social institutions, the prevailing social values, and the ideology of the ancient city-state as revealed in Roman Comedy. "The very essence of comedy is social," writes David Konstan, "and in the complex movement of its plots...Trade ReviewA fresh, tightly written and reasoned analysis of plays by Plautus and Terence, directed chiefly to the social and ethical implications of the plots. Konstan's goal is not social history but an interpretation of the playwright's artistry in constructing the social world of each play. His innovative approach should improve our understanding of the complex use of social tensions in comedy. * The Key Reporter *There is a striking scholarly brilliance underlying David Konstan's work. It is classical scholarship at its very best: objective, thorough, comparative, knowledgeable, and in this case, innovative and thought provoking. In eight, well-written, closely-annotated chapters (plus an introduction and conclusion), Konstan examines how six plays by Plautus and two by Terence reflect... 'tension in values as the mainspring of the drama....'. * Theatre Studies *This is a very important book in the study of Roman comedy and, indeed, in the study of comedy and society generally.... Konstan's ideas are profound; some are controversial; all are worth considering. * The Classical Bulletin *

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Book Synopsis"Avrom Fleishman's "The English Historical Novel" provides the first comprehensive study not only of this subject but also of the theoretical relationship between history and the historical novel".-Harriet Gilliam, "Clio".Trade ReviewProvides the first comprehensive study not only of this subject but also of the theoretical relationship between history and the historical novel. -- Harriet Gilliam ClioTable of ContentsPrefaceChapter 1. Towards a theory of historical fictionChapter 2. OriginsChapter 3. ScottChapter 4. Dickens: Visions of revolutionChapter 5. Thackeray: Beyond Whig historyChapter 6. The late Victorian historical novelChapter 7. Hardy: The avoidance of historical fictionChapter 8. Experiment and renewalIndex

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Book SynopsisEffective, articulate, and readable, Romantic Narrative will appeal to scholars in both nineteenth-century studies and narrative theory.Trade ReviewWith philosophical sophistication and extraordinary critical intelligence, Rajan also presents complex and original readings. Choice 2011Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionList of Abbreviations1. The Trauma of Lyric: Shelley's Missed Encounter with Poetry in Alastos2. Shelley's Promethean Narratives: Gothic Anamorphoses in Zastrozzi, St. Irvyne, and Prometheus Unbound3. Unbinding the Personal: Autonarration, Epistolarity, and Genotext in Mary Hays's Memoirs of Emma Courtney4. The Scene of Judgment: Trial and Confession in Godwin's Caleb Williams and Other Fiction5. Gambling, Alchemy, Speculation: Godwin's Critique of Pure Reason in St. Leon6. Whose Text? Godwin's Editing of Mary Wollstonecraft's The Wrongs of WomanNotesWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisSinclair Ross (1908-1996), best known for his canonical novel As for Me and My House (1941), and for such familiar short stories as The Lamp at Noon and The Painted Door, is an elusive figure in Canadian literature. A master at portraying the hardships and harsh beauty of the Prairies during the Great Depression, Ross nevertheless received only modest attention from the public during his lifetime. His reluctance to give readings or interviews further contributed to this faint public perception of the man. In As for Sinclair Ross, David Stouck tells the story of a lonely childhood in rural Saskatchewan, of a long and unrewarding career in a bank, and of many failed attempts to be published and to find an audience. The book also tells the story of a man who fell in love with both men and women and who wrote from a position outside any single definition of gender and sexuality. Stouck''s biography draws on archival records and on insights gathered duriTrade Review"'As for Sinclair Ross is one of the most companionable biographies I have ever read: a loving friend talks articulately and meaningfully about the long life of one of Canada's most important writers. The painstaking research, not just in archives, but most especially in interviews, is outstanding, but the strength of the book is in its warmth, its attention to detail, and the ways Stouck reads the biography into the literature. This is a wonderful, must-have work.' Frances Kaye, Department of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln"

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Book SynopsisA facing-page edition of a seventeenth-century mother's advice book, giving insights both into female Protestant religious devotion, authorship and spirituality, and into how women's words were altered in the transmission by male editors.

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Book SynopsisLaird sets Moletti's Dialogue within the historical background of medieval and Renaissance mechanics, sketches the life and works of Moletti, and analyses the arguments and the geometrical theorems of the Dialogue.

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Book SynopsisEthel Wilson: A Critical Biography is the story of a distinguished writer whose works are rightly considered classics of Canadian literature.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Dawnland Voices] puts another nail in the coffin of the persistent fantasy that "real" Indians and their traditions have vanished east of the Mississippi."—Joy Porter, Times Literary Supplement"[Dawnland Voices is] a significant contribution to Native American and indigenous studies and to US literature."—S. K. Bernardin, Choice"This is an impressive collection, useful to anyone interested in literature and history, and especially useful for educators who teach anything in regard to New England."—Sharity Bessett, SAIL“Anyone with any interest in American Indian literature or indigenous literature of any kind will treasure this innovative book. Siobhan Senier and her learned contributors show us a New England and an America that have been here all along without most Americans suspecting it.”—Robert Dale Parker, author of The Invention of Native American Literature “Dawnland Voices is a collection of writing that is as bright as the morning sun. It’s an amazingly comprehensive collection of the literary work of dozens of indigenous authors from an often overlooked part of Native America, the long-embattled Northeast. . . . The reading public needs to be awakened to the continued existence and the cultural heritage of our peoples, as well as the literary excellence of our many authors. No book that I know of does a better job of that than this brilliantly edited anthology.”—Joseph Bruchac, author of Our Stories RememberTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Siobhan SenierMI’KMAQIntroduction by Jaime BattisteChief Stephen AugustineMi’kmaq Creation StoryGrand Council of the Mi’kmaq NationThe Covenant ChainElsie Charles Basque (b. 1916)From Here to ThereRita Joe (1932–2007)From Song of Rita JoeDaniel N. Paul (b. 1938)From We Were Not the SavagesMarie Battiste (b. 1949)Structural Unemployment: The Mi’kmaq ExperienceJames Sakej Youngblood Henderson (b. 1944)Mi’kmaq TreatiesLorne Simon (1960–1994)From Stones and SwitchesLindsay Marshall (b. 1960)Clay Pots and BonesMainkewin? (Are You Going to Maine?)ProgressJaime Battiste (b. 1979)From “Understanding the Progression of Mi’kmaq Law”Alice Azure (b. 1940)Repatriation SoliloquyMi’kmaq Haiku Starlit Simon (b. 1983)Without a MicrophoneIn Quest of Road KillNotesFurther ReadingMALISEETIntroduction by Juana PerleyGabe Acquin (1839–1901)Pictograph Chief James PaulLetter to Edward Sapir, 1911Henry “Red Eagle” Perley (1885–1972)The Red Man’s BurdenShirley BearFreeport, MaineHistory Resource MaterialBaqwa’sun, Wuli Baqwa’sunSeptember MorningFragile FreedomsAndrea Bear NicholasLinguicide, the Killing of Languages, and the Case for Immersion EducationChief Brenda Commander (b. 1958)Open Letter to Barack ObamaMihku Paul (b. 1958)The Ballad of Gabe AcquinThe Water RoadReturn20th Century PowWow PlaylandTrade in the 21st CenturyNotesFurther ReadingPASSAMAQUODDYIntroduction by Donald SoctomahSopiel Soctomah (1755–1820)Wampum ReadingChief Francis Joseph Neptune (1735–1834)Speech, 1813Deacon Sockabasin (1790–1888)Save the Fish and Wildlife and Return Our Land!Joseph Stanislaus (1800–1880)"You don’t make the trees . . ."Sopiel Selmore (1814–1903)Megaque’s Last BattleTomah Joseph (1837–1914)The Power of One’s WillLewis Mitchell (1847–1930)Speech before the Maine State Legislature, 1887Letter to Charles Godfrey LelandSylvia Gabriel (1929–2003)Wounded BeFrom Dusk to DawnPeter Mitchell (1929–1978)Open Letter to AmericansMary Ellen Stevens (Socobasin, 1947–1988)Passamaquoddy GirlDonald Soctomah (b. 1955)Skicin LoveForever Tribal LoveSacred Color RedVera Francis (b. 1958)Technology Meets Ecology: Passamaquoddy BayDawna Meader (b. 1959)Gordon IslandSeasonsDream of the Hunter’s DanceSusie Mitchell Sutton (b. 1963)My Story of the Dragonfly and My Sister Rae-Lee and My MOM!Wendy Newell Dyer (b. 1964)A Warrior’s HomecomingRussell Bassett (b. 1967)A Measure of TimelessnessMajestic Beauty Of Life from LifeOne Aspect of the Journey of LifeKani Malsom (b. 1969)To My Brothers Rolfe Richter (b. 1969)"Spring drew its first breath the previous day . . ."Christine Downing (b. 1972)A Summer Day in MotahkomikukMaggie Neptune Dana (b. 1973)Coming TogetherSacred Hoop CeremonyMarie Francis (b. 1975)Diminished DreamsNatalie Dana (b. 1985)ListenFragmented PeopleWith This PencilJenny Soctomah (b. 1985)"The spirit is deep within us . . ."Ellen Nicholas (b. 1987)The Heart of SipayikSipayik Reservation 1974Cassandra Dana (b. 1992)Kci Woliwon NotesFurther ReadingPENOBSCOTIntroduction by Carol DanaPenobscot Governors and Indians in CouncilMaine State PowerJoseph Nicolar (1827–1894)The Scribe of the Penobscots Sends Us His Weekly MessageMolly Spotted Elk (1903–1977)We’re In the Chorus NowGeegis"I’m free in the world of these carpeted hills . . .""Some ten or few years so ago or more . . ."Baby GirlThe Lost Soul of the WildernessThe Dreamer—Moodas (The Dream Spirit)Northern LightsFred Ranco (1932–2008)The Avengerssipsis (b. 1941)Injun LaughGewh HuzDonna Loring (b. 1948)The Dark Ages of Education and a New Hope: Teaching Native American History in Maine SchoolsCarol Dana (b. 1952)Penobscot Home Nation We’re Like the Moss on the RockCaribou Lake Winter"Mother of three didn’t know . . .""Pensive in her rocking chair . . ."ChildrenA Walk to KtadhinRhonda Frey (1955–2009)Growing Up with Stereotypes: A Native Woman’s PerspectiveJohn Bear Mitchell (b. 1968)What’s It Like Today? (from the Ulnerbeh series)Sherri Mitchell (b. 1969)Nokomis Speaks: Message to the Seventh GenerationSky WomanThe LodgeNick Bear (b. 1985)Dry FunkgladlyTreaty of 2010february weather makes me feel like thisNotesFurther ReadingABENAKIIntroduction by Lisa BrooksSamuel NumphowLetter to Thomas HenchmanKancamagusPetitions, c. 1685Petition at No. 2, Kwinitekw, 1747Joseph Laurent (1839–1917)Preface to New Familiar Abenakis and English DialoguesHenry Lorne Masta (1853–?)From Abenaki Indian Legends, Grammar and Place-NamesRobert James Tahamont (1891–?)Chief TeedyuscungThe Masquerade BallStephen Laurent (1909–2001)The Abenakis of VermontClaudia Mason Chicklas (1926–2008)A Profile in CourageAunt Mary and Uncle FrankJoseph Bruchac III (b. 1942)From Bowman’s StoreBurial Places along the Long RiverNdakinnaCarol Willette Bachofner (b. 1947)Abenaki DivorceWinter BringerIn the Abenaki MannerNaming WaterWazôliinebiThe Old Man’s WalkPlanting Moon KikasBurial DressJibaakiCheryl Savageau (b. 1950)Poison in the PondSmallpoxWhere I Want ThemSwift River—KancamagusBefore Moving on to Plymouth from Cape Cod—1620Amber NecklaceTreesLooking for IndiansFrench Girls Are FastDonna Laurent Caruso (b. 1951)The Removal PeriodNnd Haiku: A Trilogy Abenaki Filmmaker Earns Luminaria AwardMargaret M. Bruchac (b. 1953)War Wounds: Sophie Senecal Goes to WashingtonPraying Spoils the HuntingSuzanne S. Rancourt (b. 1959)Take From My Hair—Memories of ChangeThunderbeingsFanning FireSinging Across the RiverEven When the Sky Was ClearWhen the Air Is DryJames Bruchac (b. 1968)Tracking My NatureJesse Bruchac (b. 1972)Gluskonba’s Fish Trap (Klosk8ba Adelahigan)NotesFurther ReadingNIPMUCIntroduction by Cheryl Watching Crow StedtlerWowaus (James Printer, c. 1640–c. 1709)Note Tacked to a Tree, Medfield, Massachusetts, 1676[?]Ransom Note for Mary RowlandsonEbenezer Hemenway (1804–c. 1878)On the Death of His Mother, February 17, 1847Zara Ciscoe Brough (1919–1988)Days of HassanamesitCorrine Bostic (1927–1981)Ballad for BubbaDedication to the Young: Cuttin’ a SpoonfulTouchstonesSlatemenFor Teachers: A Self-ReminderRichard Spotted Rabbit Massey (1934–2012)Hepsibeth Bowman Crosman Hemenway, 1763–1847Edwin W. Morse Sr. (Chief Wise Owl, 1929–2010)Chief Wise Owl’s PrayerKitt Little Turtle (George Munyan, 1940–2004)Coyote SpiritNipmuck LegendLegend about HobbamockThe Heat Moon Nancy Bright Sky Harris (b. 1952)To Carol and David with LoveWoman of the WarriorWind from SummerThe Gifted Porcupine Roach MakerCreator of LifeHear Your PeopleThere Was a TimeHawk Henries (b. 1956)Carrying the FluteCheryl Watching Crow Stedtler (b. 1960)Honoring a Father and a SonFull CircleNever Too Late to Dance"Circle low . . ."PressedCheryll Toney Holley (b. 1962)A Brief Look at Nipmuc HistoryBruce Curliss (b. 1965)“Authentic,” Power, and Stuck in My CrawWoman, Mother, Sister, Daughter, LoverLarry Spotted Crow Mann (b. 1967)From “Deal Me In”Heart in the CloudsThe CrowSarah “She Paints Horses” Stedtler (b. 1997)The Fresh Water PeopleAn Indian GatheringIndiansThe Dancer’s FootNotesFurther ReadingWAMPANOAGIntroduction by Joan Tavares Avant (Granny Squannit)Early Texts in MassachusettPetition from Gay Head Sachem Mittark, 1681Petition from Gay Head, 1749Petition from Gay Head to Commissioners of New England CompanyAlfred DeGrasse (1890–1978)About Poison IvyThe Legend of the Red EagleMabel Avant (1892–1964)InterviewThe Voice of Our Forsaken ChurchHelen Manning (1919–2008)From Moshup’s FootstepsFrank James (Wamsutta, 1923–2001)National Day of MourningHelen Attaquin (1923–1993)How Martha’s Vineyard Came to BeFrom “There Are Differences”Russell Peters (Fast Turtle, 1929–2002)From The Wampanoags of MashpeeAnne Foxx (b. 1950)Historical Continuities in Indigenous Women’s Political Activism: An Interview with Joan Tavares AvantLinda CoombsHolistic History: Including the Wampanoag in an Exhibit at Plimoth PlantationPaula PetersWampanoag ReflectionsBeware: Not All Terms Are Fair GameRobert Peters (b. 1962)GrandfatherRed Sun RisingMwalim *7)/Morgan James PetersFrom A Mixed Medicine BagNotesFurther ReadingNARRAGANSETTIntroduction by Dawn DoveLetters to Eleazar Wheelock (1760s)Thomas Commuck (1805–1855)Letter to Wilkins Updike, 1837Letter to Elisha Potter, 1844The Narragansett Dawn (1935–1936)Editorial (May 1935)The Boston Marathon (May 1935)Editorial (August 1935)“Indian Meeting Day,” by Fred V. Brown (August 1935)Narragansett Tongue: Lesson 11 (March 1936)Fireside Stories (July 1936)Ella Wilcox SekatauI Found Him on a Hill TopLife and Seasons Must Surely ChangeFor the ChildrenSometimes I Wish I Could Rage Like YouSure I’m Still Hanging AroundPaulla Dove JenningsSpeechesDawn DoveAlienation of Indigenous Students in the Public School SystemIn Order to Understand Thanksgiving, One Must Understand the Sacredness of the Gift000John Christian Hopkins (b. 1960)Troopers Lead Attack on Narragansett ReservationTarzan BrownWilliam O.Sad Country SongsNuweetooun School (2003–2009)“Roaring Brook,” by Lorén M. Spears“The Four Animals” and “The Three Sisters,” by Dasan Everett“The creator made us all . . . ,” by Darrlyn Sand Fry“Sky woman falling from the sky . . . ,” by Laurel SpearsThawn Harris (b. 1978)“Thank You, met Colleagues . . .”Eleanor Dove Harris (b. 1979)TGIF 1TGIF 2Letter to California State University Administration, Faculty, and Student BodyThe Pursuit of Happiness (2005)From “Happiness in Our Own Words,” by Ella Sekatau and Dawn DoveFrom “Pursuit of Happiness: An Indigenous View on Education,” by Lorén M. SpearsNotesFurther ReadingMOHEGANIntroduction by Stephanie M. FieldingSamson Occom (1723–1791)Montaukett Tribe to the State of New YorkMohegan and Niantic Tribes to the Connecticut Assembly“The most remarkable . . . Appearance of Indian Tribes”Joseph Johnson (1751–1776)From His DiariesLetter to Samson OccomFidelia Fielding (1827–1908)Man’s Relationship with GodThe Truth of TomorrowWeatherMary Virginia Morgan (1897–1988)Address at 100th Anniversary of the Mohegan ChurchGladys Tantaquidgeon (1899–2005)See the Beauty Surrounding UsAn Affectionate Portrait of Frank SpeckJayne Fawcett (b. 1936)HomelandAttic DawnPan’s SongShantokFaith Damon Davison (b. 1940)Mohegan FoodStephanie M. Fielding (b. 1945)RemembranceThe HoopSharon I. Maynard (b. 1953)Long Island SoundA Winter’s MornWilliam Donehey (b. 1955)RiverHis LoverSpirit TeacherFreedomThe Course of LoveSparrowAgainJoe Smith (b. 1956)Fade into White Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel (b. 1960)The WindowAlysson Troffer (b. 1960)The Little Girl on the HookEric Maynard (b. 1976)The Circle“Native American Professor . . .”Madeline Fielding Sayet (b. 1989)When the Whippoorwill CallsNotesFurther ReadingSCHAGHTICOKEIntroduction by Trudie Lamb Richmond and Ruth Garby TorresHoward N. Harris (1900–1967)Letter to the Department of State ParksIrving A. Harris (1931–2005)Letter to Brenden KeleherTrudie Lamb Richmond (b. 1931)Why Does the Past Matter? Eunice Mauwee’s Resistance Was Our Path to SurvivalGrowing Up Indian (or Trying To) in Southern New EnglandPaulette Crone-Morange (1943–2004)From “The Schaghticoke and English Law: A Study of Community Survival”Ruth Garby Torres (b. 1955)Eulogy for Irving HarrisAileen Harris McDonough (b. 1975)How I Became a (Paid) WriterOn LossWunneanatsu Cason (b. 1980)I’m Off to See the WizardDeployments and MotherhoodGarry Meeches Jr. (b. 1997)SoccerPolar Bear PoemI AmSenses: HearWhat Never DiesBuild a PoemNotesFurther ReadingSource Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisBooks about thinkers require a kind of unity that their thought may not possess. This cautionary statement is especially applicable to Mikhail Bakhtin, whose intellectual development displays a diversity of insights that cannot be easily integrated or accurately described in terms of a single overriding concern.Trade Review"A ground breaking statement. . . . It cannot be ignored."—Slavic and East European Journal"Will remain the standard scholarly reference in English for years."—Philosophy and Literature

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Book SynopsisThis text argues that Proust the novelist is bolder than Proust the theorist. By this the author means that the novel is philosophically bolder, that it pursues further the task Proust identifies as the writer's work: to explain life, to elucidate what has been lived in obscurity and confusion.Trade Review"Descombes' Proust is a brilliant excursion by a philosopher into the domain of literary criticism. Precisely because it raises as a central issue the question of the relation of philosophical knowledge to literary knowledge, it will interest theorists and those philosophers concerned with the nature and function of literary discourse. Moreover, Descombes makes brief, sometimes polemical and always clarifying sorties into a number of historical and theoretical questions, such as the 'textualism' of the sixties and the narratology of Barthes and Genette. The book exemplifies what can be learned from a close reading controlled by principles of rigorous logic and the pursuit of clarity. It is attractively written, cannily organized, bursting with ideas, and eminently readable." -Ross Chambers ,The University of MichiganTable of ContentsContents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

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Book SynopsisExamines the historical formation of modern Japanese literature through a fundamental reassessment of its most characteristic form, the "I-novel," an autobiographical narrative thought to recount the details of the writer's personal life thinly veiled as fiction.Trade Review"This is an extraordinary book. It is the most systematic and critical treatment of what may be termed the 'postwar theoretical hysteria.' In the process, the study introduces for the first time in English a number of very important primary sources and provides sensitive and insightful new readings of some of the texts crucial to the formation of the Japanese literary canon. In presenting this critically informed 'new literary history,' Suzuki frees the reader to become aware of a far greater diversity and multiplicity of voices in the Japanese novel, voices that have often been silenced by a monolithic totalizing theory of Japan. . . . This study is required reading for those with an interest in Japanese literature and modern Japanese intellectual history, and should occasion reflection on how we teach and have taught Japanese literature in the United States."—Journal of Japanese StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction: narratives of Japanese modernity; Part I. The Novel and the Self as Master Signifiers: 1. The position of the Shosetsu: paradigm change and new literary discourse; 2. Self, Christianity, and language: Genbun-itchi and concern for the self; 3. The furor over the I-novel: the question of authenticity; Part II. Rereading the I-Novel: 4. Love, sexuality, and nature: Tayama Katai's Quilt and Japanese naturalism; 5. Shaping life, shaping the past: Shiga Naoya's narratives of recollection; Part III. Traces of the Self: 6. Crossing boundaries: truth and fiction in Nagai Kafu's Strange Tale from East of the River; 7. Allegories of modernity: parodic confession in Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's Fool's Love; Epilogue: Tanizaki's speaking subject and creation of tradition; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisContemporary literary critics have praised novel theory for abandoning its formalist roots and defining the novel as a vehicle of social discourse. This text argues that it was the compatibility of Bakhtin with James that prompted Anglo-American theorists to embrace Bakhtin with such enthusiasm.Trade Review“This book stages a powerful critique of the theory of narrative in general, and of the novel in particular. Hale’s arguments are convincing, she writes with an admirable lucidity, and she is fearless in taking on the central shibboleths of the last thirty years. This is a splendid, brave, bracing performance.”—Jonathan Freedman, University of MichiganTable of ContentsContents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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Book SynopsisJack London has long been recognized as one of the most colourful figures in American literature. This re-assessment of his work aims to bring to the reader a new sense of London's richness and variety, especially his treatment of diverse cultures.Trade Review"This lively, diverse collection of essays on Jack London's works . . . will make an important contribution to the study of this powerful, strange, baffling, exasperating writer."—Joseph R. McElrath, Jr., Florida State University"Representing new directions in London studies, these essays reach beyond traditional versions of realism and naturalism in discussing London, moving away from standard biographical readings with contemporary and diverse theoretical approaches. . . . An important contribution to the study and appreciation of one of America's most popular, yet often misunderstood, writers."—ChoiceTable of ContentsCONTENTS CASSUTO LEONARD REESMAN JEANNE CAMPBELL WILLIAMS JAMES AUERBACH JONATHAN CROW CHARLES L. PELUSO ROBERT SHOR FRANCIS BASKETT SAM S. DERRICK SCOTT STASZ CLARICE GAIR CHRISTOPHER HUGH FURER ANDREW J. SLAGEL JAMES WALSH TANYA BERKOVE LAWRENCE I. LABOR EARLE

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Book SynopsisToward the end of James's career, Charles Scribner's Sons offered to publish his collected work under the overall title The New York Edition of the Novels and Tales of Henry James. This book is the first comprehensive effort to apprehend the full complexity of James's self-performance there.Trade Review"McWhirter's collection of essays takes on the long-awaited task of situating the 24-volume New York edition and its author within a cultural/historical framework. . . . Easily establishes itself as a must for Jamesians and a valuable read for anyone concerned with narrative theory and/or the history of the novel."—Novel

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Book SynopsisThe emergence of the fantastic tale in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reflects a growing fascination with the supernatural, the marvelous, and the occult as the site for literary innovation. Taking Jacques Cazotte''s prototypical The Devil in Love as a starting point, this book examines the genre''s early development in the fantastic tales of the German romantics Ludwig Tieck, Achim von Arnim, and E. T. A. Hoffmann; the subsequent French rediscovery of the genre in works by Théophile Gautier and Prosper Mérimée; and Edgar Allan Poe''s contributions to the new literary form.The literary innovation of the fantastic tale contributed to the production of a mode of subjectivity intrinsic to the history of sexuality. It arose at a moment in the history of communication when similarity and perfect openness were no longer considered the unquestioned basis of friendship or love, when the other''s potentially dark secrets became seductive and fascinating. Trade Review"The brilliance of The Seduction of the Occult and the Rise of the Fantastic Tale is its intellectual courage and sure footedness in contextualizing complexity of subjectivity in the nineteenth century when the many ways of knowing the world were implicated in a competition for political dominance that insisted on the exclusion of any alternatives...[T]he book's virtues in exposing the intellectual dynamic of the beginning of the modern age make it valuable even for those not intimately engaged in literary study." -- Leonardo Reviews

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Book SynopsisThe emergence of the fantastic tale in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries reflects a growing fascination with the supernatural, the marvelous, and the occult as the site for literary innovation. Taking Jacques Cazotte''s prototypical The Devil in Love as a starting point, this book examines the genre''s early development in the fantastic tales of the German romantics Ludwig Tieck, Achim von Arnim, and E. T. A. Hoffmann; the subsequent French rediscovery of the genre in works by Théophile Gautier and Prosper Mérimée; and Edgar Allan Poe''s contributions to the new literary form.The literary innovation of the fantastic tale contributed to the production of a mode of subjectivity intrinsic to the history of sexuality. It arose at a moment in the history of communication when similarity and perfect openness were no longer considered the unquestioned basis of friendship or love, when the other''s potentially dark secrets became seductive and fascinating. Trade Review"The brilliance of The Seduction of the Occult and the Rise of the Fantastic Tale is its intellectual courage and sure footedness in contextualizing complexity of subjectivity in the nineteenth century when the many ways of knowing the world were implicated in a competition for political dominance that insisted on the exclusion of any alternatives...[T]he book's virtues in exposing the intellectual dynamic of the beginning of the modern age make it valuable even for those not intimately engaged in literary study." -- Leonardo Reviews

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Book SynopsisA history of the modern sequential comic form from the late nineteenth century through today, focusing on the unique ways in which it tells stories and interacts with readers.Trade Review"Jared Gardner's Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling contains some of the most fascinating and theoretically advanced writing about comics to date, and it marks a watershed moment not only in comics study but also in postclassical narratology, American Studies, and related areas of research . . . Gardner's fascinating account to a transnational vantage point from which we can trace the history and envision the future of comics."—Daniel Stein, Amerikastudien"Gardner's study may prove to be crucial in understanding how the trends and conventions of the past influence the way this distinctive art form tells stories. Projections is a valuable addition to comics studies that can also be useful for scholars and historians of film, literature, and cultural studies in its wide historical scope and interdisciplinary analysis."—Qiana Whitted, CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History "Beginning with a bullish denunciation of those commonplace misconceptions which have, for over a century, dogged the medium of comic books . . . Jared Gardner's serious, provocative book . . . examine[s] the progress of the form from a variety of surprising angles."—Jonathan Barnes, Times Literary Supplement"[Projections] is an informed and informative exploration and analysis of the history of comics and graphic novels within the context of an expanding interactive media that has melded 19th century comic strips into a 21st century literary and storytelling art form that it is today. A seminal work of superlative scholarship, Projections . . . is also a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in the graphic novel, its origins, and its continuing evolution as a literary art form."—Midwest Book Review"Projections is original, provocative, deeply informed, and a much needed corrective to the presentist bias of comics studies. Gardner says important, eye-opening things about comics, film, and audience, things that should inform all our work from now on. A landmark study."—Charles Hatfield, California State University, Northridge, author of Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature"A succinct and savvy cultural history of American comics in the long twentieth century, Projections is attentive to reading publics and the actual experience of reading comics across different forms, formats, and genres. Focusing on the rise of comics as one media form among many, Gardner crucially asks us to consider its 'interactivity' not only as an abstraction but as a practice."—Hillary Chute, University of Chicago

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Book SynopsisA history of the modern sequential comic form from the late nineteenth century through today, focusing on the unique ways in which it tells stories and interacts with readers.Trade Review"Jared Gardner's Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-First-Century Storytelling contains some of the most fascinating and theoretically advanced writing about comics to date, and it marks a watershed moment not only in comics study but also in postclassical narratology, American Studies, and related areas of research . . . Gardner's fascinating account to a transnational vantage point from which we can trace the history and envision the future of comics."—Daniel Stein, Amerikastudien"Gardner's study may prove to be crucial in understanding how the trends and conventions of the past influence the way this distinctive art form tells stories. Projections is a valuable addition to comics studies that can also be useful for scholars and historians of film, literature, and cultural studies in its wide historical scope and interdisciplinary analysis."—Qiana Whitted, CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History "Beginning with a bullish denunciation of those commonplace misconceptions which have, for over a century, dogged the medium of comic books . . . Jared Gardner's serious, provocative book . . . examine[s] the progress of the form from a variety of surprising angles."—Jonathan Barnes, Times Literary Supplement"[Projections] is an informed and informative exploration and analysis of the history of comics and graphic novels within the context of an expanding interactive media that has melded 19th century comic strips into a 21st century literary and storytelling art form that it is today. A seminal work of superlative scholarship, Projections . . . is also a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in the graphic novel, its origins, and its continuing evolution as a literary art form."—Midwest Book Review"Projections is original, provocative, deeply informed, and a much needed corrective to the presentist bias of comics studies. Gardner says important, eye-opening things about comics, film, and audience, things that should inform all our work from now on. A landmark study."—Charles Hatfield, California State University, Northridge, author of Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature"A succinct and savvy cultural history of American comics in the long twentieth century, Projections is attentive to reading publics and the actual experience of reading comics across different forms, formats, and genres. Focusing on the rise of comics as one media form among many, Gardner crucially asks us to consider its 'interactivity' not only as an abstraction but as a practice."—Hillary Chute, University of Chicago

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Book SynopsisThis study presents Virgil as a radically different poet from any of his Greek or Roman predecessors. It begins with the "Aeneid", and includes chapters on the "Bucolics" and the "Georgics".

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Book SynopsisOwen Wister turned the Western into a form of social and political critique, touching on such issues as race, the environment, women’s rights, and immigration. In this biographical-literary account of Wister’s life and writings, Gary Scharnhorst shows how the West shaped Wister’s career and ideas, even as he lived and worked in the East.

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Book SynopsisOffers the first book-length critical evaluation of Howard Chaykin's work and confronts the blind spots in comics scholarship that consign this seminal artist to the margins. Brannon Costello argues that Chaykin's contributions are often overlooked because his comics eschew any pretensions to serious literature.

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Book SynopsisOffers a long-overdue reconsideration of Ralph Ellison, examining the trajectory of his intellectual thought in relation to its resonances in twenty-first-century American culture. Bland charts Ellison’s evolving attitudes on several central topics including democracy, race, identity, social community, place, and political expression.

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Book SynopsisA collection of essays investigating Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring. The contributors explore the book's effectiveness in conveying its disturbing message and the rhetorical strategies that helped to create its wide influence.

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Book Synopsis

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